


Hiding

by EntreNous



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-10-26
Updated: 2003-11-30
Packaged: 2017-11-10 02:20:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/461196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EntreNous/pseuds/EntreNous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Andrew and Xander, trying not to be discovered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

There was a slam. A low curse was the only noise that broke the subsequent silence.

Then, moments later, rustling, sounds of a struggle, then a soft “oof!” and a sharp “yipe!”

“Andrew,” Xander tried to inquire in an extremely quiet yet reasonable tone, “Why are you straddling my lap?”

“Shut! Up!” Andrew hissed back at him.

They both pricked up their ears at the sound of a footfall approaching . . . and then fading away.

Xander released the breath he had been holding as quietly as possible. He could barely see Andrew’s face, but it was so close that it was tough to focus on it. He felt Andrew move slightly, trying to shift into a kneeling position, but the smaller man stopped suddenly when the footsteps gained volume once more.

“Wha --” Xander began in a whisper, but Andrew slapped his hand over Xander’s mouth. In the dull gleam of light shining through the closet door, each of them could just make out the other’s frightened eyes.

A creak . . . and then silence again. A sharp intake of breath, and then . . . nothing.

Andrew relaxed his hand slightly, but though he’d decreased the pressure, he continued to cover Xander’s open mouth. Xander squirmed helplessly, trying quietly to find an inch of space in their narrow confines.

“Stop it!” Andrew admonished him, his breath hot in Xander’s ear. “Do you *want* to get us caught?”

“No, no, I only --” Xander tried to speak, but seeing as Andrew’s hand still covered his mouth, he only succeeded in rapidly darting his tongue all across Andrew’s palm.

“Aaaarrghgh!!” Andrew screamed at the unexpected tongue bath, calling forth the pounding steps once more. They clutched at each other desperately as the closet door was flung open, and--

“Oh, man,” Rona sighed, “I am never *ever* doing this again. I don’t care how bored Dawn is.”

“Find ‘em?” a voice called out cheerily.

“Yes, I found them,” Rona sighed. She glared at the two of them, now lying in a heap just outside the closet.

Both Xander and Andrew were trying to get up at the same time, and kept tripping over one another. They finally made it to their feet, but not without some ineffectual pushes and shoves as their bid to rescue any remaining dignity gave way to their attempts to bitch-slap each other.

Faith poked her head in the room. “Okay, boys, you’re it for the next round.”

“Damn it!” Xander exclaimed, and then kicked the closet door. “I fucking *hate* hide-and-seek!”


	2. Chapter 2

It had all started late that morning. It had been pouring for days, _Bring It On_ and _She’s All That_ had run almost incessantly on the VCR, and everyone was crabby about waiting for the Hellmouth to reopen. 

It was when Buffy and Giles had to leave for two nights that everything went to hell in a hand-basket. 

Willow and Anya had escaped, muttering something about the ingredients for a protective ward over the house. 

As the rainy weather continued, tempers had erupted, feelings had been hurt, and Spike swore privately to Xander that if he saw another one of the girls rush out of the bathroom with her eyes all red and swollen he was going to start cracking skulls. 

Andrew had been quieter than usual, careful about stepping on the frayed nerves of the horde of females swarming around him. 

By 11am on the second day, Xander had given up trying to fix the crushed dining room table, and sat morosely in the kitchen counting nails and screws.

He cringed when he realized that the girls had begun invading the room in waves. "I don’t have any chocolate for you," he began haltingly, stopping only when Dawn gestured for him to be silent.

"It’s not that -- we have something we have to do, a way to get this out of our systems." Dawn held her chin in the air firmly, nodding dryly to the latecomers. "Ah. Andrew. Spike. So glad you could join us." Spike actually looked chagrined.

The group waited for their instructions.

"The name of the game is hide-and-seek," Dawn announced. One of the potentials raised her hand. "Yes?" Dawn asked impatiently. 

"Will this be part of the training demonstrations and test performances tomorrow?"

"No, no," Dawn stamped her foot. "This isn’t about training. This is about all of you working my last good nerve! Everyone is whining and complaining. It’s raining outside, and all I want to do is hang out in my room and read TeenPeople. But nooooo, I have to watch everyone and make sure that none of you claw each other’s eyes out. So if I have to be in charge, we’ll play the game my way."

Dawn sized the group up quickly. "Okay. I’ll be it, and everyone else will hide, and--"

"No way!" shouted one irate potential. (Mindy? Mandy?) "You grew up in this house -- or at least you time-folded into the memories of growing up in this house. I’ll bet you know every last hiding place, and there is no *way* that you get to be it!"

The room erupted with cries and wild gesticulations as all the young women quickly took sides. 

"Will you lot shut your gobs!" Spike shouted suddenly. "Let the Bit have her say!"

Everyone quieted down at once. 

Then Andrew raised his hand tentatively. "Um, Dawn?" he asked, not waiting for permission. "There’s so many of us. I don’t think that there are enough places in the house to hide everyone. Maybe we should play in shifts?" he offered.

"No, I want everyone in the game at once," Dawn asserted, and then frowned. How could they all hide in separate spots, unless . . . "Oh, I know," she said excitedly. "Teams! We’ll split up into teams of two people each, and the teams will hide together, and one team will be ‘it’ and the last team to be found gets to be ‘it’ in the next round!"

"Xander’s on my team!" Andrew shrieked. "Well, I wanted dibs," he said defensively to the group of eye-rolling girls. 

"What? No. Wait! Get Spike to be on your team," Xander pleaded. 

Spike raised a single eyebrow. "Not playing." Dawn opened her mouth to object, but he cut her off smoothly. "Odd number of us, Nibblet. I’ll sit this one out, make it an even group. Sorry, mate," he shrugged at Andrew. 

The girls burst into frenzied calls, and pretty soon everyone was pairing off. 

Xander held his head from all the noise, and looked for an escape. Unfortunately, the first thing he set his eyes on was a mournful-looking Andrew, still alone in the sea of paired girls. 

"Yeah, well," Andrew said slowly. "If Xan -- if none of the guys are playing, I can just hang out, and, you know . . . " he trailed off unhappily. 

"Oh, for the love of Pete," Xander grouched under his breath, and then spoke up. "Uh, Andrew? I’ll be on your team."

Andrew actually began to jump up and down. "Really? For sure? I’m sooo good at this game, Xander, I promise you. You won’t regret picking me." He looked solemn and awed as he finished, as though Xander had asked him to join a top-secret space mission or invited him to join in a daring bank heist.


	3. Chapter 3

Leave it to Andrew to choose the closet in Joyce’s old bedroom, Xander scowled. For some reason Faith and Rona hadn’t thought to look there until everyone else had turned up. Of course, during their absence they had been named the “it” team. Now he had to spend the next round with Andrew, searching for girls that he was pretty sure he wanted to get lost.

After a moment, however, he turned to Andrew with a thoughtful look, and said “Andr--” but Dawn’s extremely vocal victory dance cut him off.

Dawn had clapped her hands gleefully when she realized that Xander was on seek duty. Now she shuffled around between the dining room and the kitchen in a funky sliding motion, punctuated by occasional punches into the air. She stopped and did a little shimmy, shaking her butt enthusiastically, and then clapped her hands again.

“Ooooh, Xander, it’ll be just like when I used to hide from you when I was little! You sucked at finding me! I always won! This’ll be great -- maybe we should have something riding on this? Like if you can’t find us all, we get to --”

“No deals,” Xander said shortly.

Her face fell only momentarily. “This is going to be great,” Dawn crowed.

Xander glared darkly at the chattering crowd of potentials, and started the count.

“One, Two, Three--”

Girls shrieked and scrambled, and by the count of ten it was just Andrew and Xander in the living room.

****

Spike looked up from the cot in shock.

The potentials were all creeping down, nearly silently, invading his basement. “Nibblet,” he began warningly.

“Shhh, Spike!” Dawn scolded him. “Don’t blow our cover.”

Spike rubbed his eyes and blinked. The girls were all still there.

“Got to hand it to you, D,” Faith said smoothly, “This was a good hiding place.” Faith flopped down on the cot next to Spike and started paging through his copy of the October “Hustler” nonchalantly.

“Yeah,” Dawn sighed, hugging herself contentedly. “Xander’ll never look for us down here -- he won’t think that we’d come down to bug Spike. It’s going to take them, like, two hours before they find us!!!”

One of the potentials looked slightly askance at this estimated time frame. “Two hours? Down here? What’ll we do while we’re waiting?”

Some of the other girls shifted back and forth, and shot accusing looks at Dawn. Dawn raised her chin in the air, refusing to give in.

“We’ll be fine. Spike’ll keep us entertained. Right Spike? -- oh no you don’t,” Dawn shrieked as she caught Spike trying to wiggle out of the small basement window.

“She’s right,” Faith said, joining Dawn in dragging Spike back to the interior. “You’re the host because it’s your basement, so you’ll have to come up with something fun for us to do.”

A sea of baby-faced potentials looked expectantly at Spike. Spike rolled his eyes.

“Well, won’t do to have them find you right away, would it? You want the boys to get all worked up looking for you then?” Spike asked slowly.

Wavy, straight, and curly locks of many colors moved at the same time as the girls shook their heads solemnly at him. Surprisingly enough, they all agreed about something. They didn’t want to give away their hiding place -- they wanted to make Xander and Andrew suffer and look goofy for not being able to find them.

“Right then,” Spike nodded, then grinned maliciously. “How many of you birds know how to play the keep-quiet game?”

****

“Okay,” Andrew said uncertainly, his eyes darting around the living room. “Maybe we should start by looking--” he began, but then gasped as Xander grabbed his wrist, and pulled him along as he ran up the stairs.

“Xander,” Andrew sniffed, rubbing at his wrist once they came to a halt. “What’d you do that for? And why are we up here, back in the big bedroom again?”

“Think about it,” Xander said. “The girls are hiding. Trying to be quiet. Wanting not to be found. When do you think you’ll hear the house this silent again?”

Andrew paused. He crinkled up his nose with pleasure, and grinned at the brunette. “Xander, you’re so smart,” he said shyly.

“Hell, I’m a genius,” Xander agreed, grinning madly. He made a gallant hand motion and a bow, then stooped to pull something out from under the bed. “Check it out.”

“Wow,” Andrew breathed, dutifully impressed. “Popcorn? Brownies? Yoohoo? How’d all this get up here?”

Xander had the good grace to look slightly ashamed for a moment. Then he shrugged.

“You know how Dawn was saying I suck at hide and seek? Well, that’s ‘cause when she was really little--”

“Except she wasn’t, because she’s the key,” Andrew pointed out helpfully.

“Whatever. I remember it, she remembers it, it happened. Anyway, I’d hang out with her, watch her for Joyce and Buff sometimes. We had fun, mostly, but man, could she get on my nerves if she set her mind to it. That’s when I figured it out. Hide and seek! She hides. Only I don’t seek. No Dawn for an hour or two. Then she comes back in a good mood, thinking that I couldn’t find her to save my life.”

“Once I realized that we were it, I hauled this stash upstairs while Dawn was distracted by a box of Ho-Hos that I planted in her path. Way I see it,” Xander continued, “we’ve got at least two hours here before those girls convince her to cash in her winning hand for a period of excruciating taunting. So,” he flopped down on the bed, “wanna watch some TV?”


	4. Chapter 4

Andrew picked up the snacks and piled them in the middle of the bed. After he toed the box back in its hiding place, he gingerly took the free half of the bed.

Xander already lounged against propped up pillows on his side, and bit into a brownie with gusto. “Wanthome?” he asked.

Andrew took a proffered brownie, and started to relax a little, leaning against the headboard. “What’ll we watch?”

“Dunno,” Xander said, examining the remote and aiming it at the large television to turn it on. “Something damn manly.”

“Oh, okay.” Andrew gave a forced smile, like that was the best idea ever.

“Tell you what,” Xander offered, “the remote’s all yours. From me to you, to acknowledge your official promotion from hostage to guestage.”

Andrew took the remote carefully from Xander’s grip, and pressed the channel buttons. “What did you have in mind, I mean with the manly, um . . . some kind of monster truck thing? Wrestling? Hockey? Porn?”

Xander choked on his swallow of Yoohoo. “What?”

“Nothing,” Andrew said hastily.

“Wow, Andrew, I totally thought you’d suggest the Sci-Fi channel’s MST3K marathon or that Samurai Saturday Special on channel five. But seriously . . . we don’t have the Spice channel or something, do we?”

Andrew shrugged, trying to act casual, and flipped around in the adult channels section. Most of it was fuzz. They sat for a minute or two with their heads twisted to the right, trying to make out the action.

“This reminds me of high school,” Xander murmured. “Attempting to make out a body part, any body part, from the static.”

“This kind of reminds me of high school, too,” Andrew observed. “Not the body-part part . . . um, just hanging out, watching TV, eating brownies and stuff with the other guys.”

Xander sighed. “Yeah, lots of brownie eating, but with the girls for me. I didn’t have too many guy friends in high school, though.”

They both turned back to the television, and Andrew changed the channel to the Mystery Science Theater 3000 marathon on Sci-Fi.

“Oh, it’s ‘I Accuse My Parents!’ ” Andrew exclaimed. “This one is so hilarious.”

They watched for a while, meowing enthusiastically at the screen whenever the character Kitty showed up.

“Almost as good as ‘Cave Dwellers,’ ” Xander remarked through a mouthful of popcorn.

“ ‘I think your cape is fabulooouuus,’ ” Andrew quoted, and they both snickered. Xander reached out and punched Andrew in a friendly way, and Andrew rubbed his shoulder with a pleased look on his face.

As the movie drew to a close, they both intoned “This could be your boy,” along with the actor speaking the last line, and they laughed together once more.

***

Back in the basement, Dawn was looking daggers at Rona, who sat quietly humming.

No one had given in officially yet -- what with all of the competition over whose roundhouses were better and who got to take the 7:30am shower, the aggressive, competitive tendencies of the potentials had escalated to high levels.

But Rona hummed, and Faith yawned incessantly. Mindy (or Mandy?) was meditating over in the corner, but she breathed out in a whistle-y way that made two other potentials roll their eyes at one another.

Dawn scratched her arm and curled her lip up in a sneer at Rona, who hummed louder.

Faith raised her eyebrows -- this had the makings of a small riot. She automatically checked out the exits to make sure she had a means of escape. No way was she getting stuck with this sniffly, whiny, hair-pulling bunch of cupcakes when the punches started flying.

Only Spike looked content. The girls were scowling, but at least they were fairly quiet.

Dawn frowned at the others and curled up on the floor. No one said that they couldn’t nap through the keep-quiet competition. She’d win this one yet.

***

Andrew squirmed a little and tried not to think about how Xander’s arm was draped casually over the top of the headboard.

Xander had stretched out ten minutes ago, the gesture almost an afterthought as he turned glazed eyes on the horror movie they were now watching. Andrew was leaning forward to get the last Yoohoo, and when he looked behind him he saw Xander’s strong-looking arm forming a kind of careless arc just where he’d been sitting.

Now he wasn’t sure what to do. Was he supposed to sit up, or lean back? Ignore the arm, or kind of lean near it? Maybe edge over in Xander’s direction, or maybe just get off the bed and go cower somewhere hidden?

Andrew hovered with his back near the headboard, and stared blankly at the film.

Xander thought wistfully of the first time he had seen this very movie with Buffy and Willow. They always used to hang, watch movies, and get kind of cuddly. Okay, so maybe he was subtly trying to cop a feel, but he missed how affectionate they used to act with one another. Now that Willow had Kennedy and Buffy. . . well, kind of had Spike, and he and Anya were broken up there hadn’t been anyone he could pet or nuzzle for a while. So the old memories? Nice to have. Xander sighed. Good times.

Without realizing it, Xander began to play with the hair at the nape of Andrew’s neck.

Andrew shivered a little, and moved slightly into the ghosting fingertips, increasing the pressure. He tried to turn his attention back to the movie so that he wouldn’t tense up.

Just then the monster burst through the campgrounds, surprising the teenagers who had been stripping to skinny-dip in the cursed lake . . .

Before he could catch his breath from the involuntary gasp that had escaped, Andrew noticed that he was gripping Xander’s thigh rather tightly.

For a moment, neither one of them moved. Then Xander absently picked up Andrew’s hand and held it.

Andrew put his free hand over his mouth, trying to resist the urge to giggle hysterically. With Xander’s left arm now resting lightly on his shoulder, his left hand stroking the sweet spot at the back of Andrew’s neck, and his right hand now holding Andrew’s right hand -- well, it would only take a small tug for Xander to pull Andrew into his lap.

And that sounded like a fine idea to Andrew, except for the fact that he worried that he’d squeal or something, and break the spell that Xander seemed to be operating under.

Xander sat, holding Andrew’s hand warmly with occasional little squeezes, moving his thumb over the back of his hand to rub at the soft skin there, stroking Andrew’s neck using feather-light touches, and thought about nothing much in particular. Except for the vague sense that he felt fairly comfy.


	5. Chapter 5

Dawn woke up with a start to find herself in an empty room.

She stomped up the basement stairs and glared at Spike, who was sipping at a mug of blood while lounging on the living room sofa.

“Where is everyone?” she scowled.

Spike’s eyes drifted up to hers. “Congratulations,” he said off-handedly. “And they all snuck off to the mall while you were out cold.”

“They went to the mall without me?” Dawn asked plaintively. “And what do you mean, congrat-- oh! I won, didn’t I?” Her lips curled slowly into a triumphant smile.

“You certainly did,” Spike remarked, and picked up the television remote.

“What do I get?”

“Huh?” Spike asked distractedly as he changed the stations.

“I won the keep-quiet game . . . what do I get?”

“The satisfaction of knowing that you won?” Spike asked hopefully.

Dawn groaned and dropped down onto the sofa next to him. “Fine. At least everyone’s taken off for a while.”

“Not _everyone_ ,” Spike said softly, grinning at her.

She stared at him blankly for a moment.

“Xander and Andrew?” she said with raised eyebrows.

“I expect they’re upstairs,” Spike said carelessly. “Perhaps you ought to go check on them?”

“Okay,” Dawn shrugged and hopped to her feet.

Spike smirked, then started guiltily. _Stupid soul._

“Wait a second, bit,” he called after her.

She turned and regarded him expectantly.

“It has occurred to you that Xander and Andrew might _not_ be looking for you, yeah?”

“No,” Dawn said. “Why would they not . . . ” she gaped at him for a moment.

“Come on,” Spike sighed. “Let’s go buy you celebratory pizza.”

“Um, okay,” Dawn said in confusion. Her face cleared quickly as she followed him out the door with a barrage of questions. “How much pizza can we get? Will you order me a beer? How about we get the Pizza Extravaganza Special _with_ artichoke hearts? Will you get mad if I order garlic knots? What if I promise not to breathe on you? How about -- ”

***

Andrew opened his eyes slowly, trying to figure out why he seemed to be laying on someone’s chest.

“Um, Xander?” he whispered into the darkened room.

“Yeah?” a voice responded softly.

“The movie ended?"

“Yeah.”

“Are we still hiding?”

“Not so much.”

“Did anyone try to find us?”

“Nope.”

“Are they going to?”

“Nah.”

“How come?”

“They’re all gone -- the s.i.t.s were chattering about shoes, so I guess they’re at the mall. And I heard Dawn bugging Spike about pizza, so they probably went to get dinner. It’s just me and you.”

“That’s good,” Andrew whispered unthinkingly. Then he backtracked as he started to pull away reluctantly. “I mean, that’s good in the sense that the girls aren’t going to make fun of us for not finding them if they’re slacking off at the food court, and that Dawn is getting pizza, because that’ll probably make her less grouchy, and that . . . um, I mean . . . ”

“No, it’s good,” Xander said in a low voice as he pulled Andrew back down. His fingers began to card through Andrew’s hair slowly, and Andrew shivered, burying his face in Xander’s chest.

“Um, Xander?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah,” Xander answered.

“If we’re not, uh, hiding . . . any more . . . what are we doing?”

Xander’s hand paused briefly, then resumed stroking Andrew’s hair. “I guess . . . something damn manly . . . ”

“Okay,” Andrew murmured softly. He blinked up at Xander in the soft light coming in through the window and saw Xander looking contemplatively down at him. For a moment, they seemed stalled in that position, then Xander gently pulled Andrew up his chest, cupped his face in his hand, and kissed him softly on the lips.

Andrew made a little noise as one of his hands reached to twine around Xander’s neck. Xander increased the pressure, slipping his tongue in lightly when Andrew parted his lips.

“Oh,” Andrew said simply when Xander pulled away. He touched his fingertips to his lips.

“That okay?” Xander asked. He searched Andrew’s face intently.

“More than,” Andrew said. He dropped his gaze from Xander’s and plucked at Xander’s collar for a moment before Xander caught his hand and squeezed it.

“Want to do it some more?” Xander asked just before he dropped a kiss on Andrew’s head.

“Really?” Andrew asked wonderingly. “I mean, yeah . . . that’d be good.”

Just then they heard the front door open and Buffy exclaiming at Giles, “Where is everyone anyway?”

Andrew’s face fell, but Xander only laughed and gave him a quick kiss before rising and extended his hand down.

Andrew took the proffered hand and got to his feet. “Talk about your ironic timing,” he said petulantly, and Xander laughed again.

“I think that’s Xander upstairs,” they heard Buffy call to Giles.

“I guess we should go down,” Andrew said.

“Right,” Xander offered.

“Will we, maybe, I mean if you want to . . . ”

“Later?” Xander asked. “Sounds good to me.”

“You’re taking this really well,” Andrew said suspiciously.

Xander raised his eyebrows. “The way I see it, we’ve got the apocalypse to end all apocali -- wait, is that the plural of apocalypse?”

“I don’t think there’s supposed to _be_ a plural,” Andrew said thoughtfully.

“Right. Well, I figure that the fact that you’re a guy . . . not really worth freaking over if the main thing on the agenda is whether the world ends or not.” He paused for a moment. “Plus, I never saw any of the relationships I was in coming before they started up, so not really wigged out there . . . ” he waved his hand for the finish.

“So this is a relationship?” Andrew asked hopefully.

“Let’s just try to get through the next week alive, okay?” Xander said. “But . . . maybe? Pretty possibly?”

Andrew grinned. Xander grinned right back at him.

“I _told_ you that you wouldn’t regret picking me for your team,” Andrew said loftily.

“Right. Listening to you from now on,” Xander agreed.

“Cool,” Andrew said with relief. They looked at each other dopily for a minute, then headed downstairs together.

*~*~*~*~The End~*~*~*~*  



End file.
